Vampire Hunt (Kiera Hudson Series #3)

by Tim O'Rourke

  “I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Luke whispered. Then, glancing back at Murphy who was still playing captain in the cabin, Luke shouted, “Sarge! Does this boat go any faster?”

  “Faster?” Murphy asked, peering back over his shoulder at Luke. Then seeing the red lights coming towards us, his eyes bulged beneath his silver eyebrows and he shouted, “You’ve got to be kidding me!” At once, the boat’s engine began to make a grinding noise as Murphy forced it forward.

  “What are those lights?” Isidor asked no one in particular as he slid his crossbow over his shoulder and held it out before him.

  “I hate to disappoint you boy-wonder, but they ain’t lights,” Potter said, “They’re eyes!”

  “Eyes?” I gasped. “Whose eyes?”

  “Their eyes!” Luke shouted, pointing at the vampires that were swimming through the water towards us.

  Turning, I shrunk back in horror at the gaunt-looking faces that were submerged half-in and half-out of the water. Their hair lay in black streaks which clung wetly to the sides of their heads and their eyes glowed like hot coals from within sunken sockets. As they sped closer, the vampires’ faces looked wrinkled and shrunken like skin that had been left too long under the water. They raced towards the boat on all sides, leaving behind huge wakes which rippled back towards the shore.

  “Can’t this piece of junk go any faster?” Potter hollered over his shoulder at Murphy who frantically pumped more gas into the engines as he loosened the throttle.

  “She’s going as fast as she can!” Murphy roared back. Then there was a rumbling sound, followed by a large hiss as thick black smoke belched from the engine.

  “Talk to me Sarge!” Potter yelled. “What’s going on up there?”

  “The engine’s gone!” Murphy shouted back. We turned to look at him. “It’s not my fault!” he spat.

  Turning back to face the lake, I looked into the water to see the vampires sink beneath it. The boat slowed to a standstill and the silence was deafening.

  “Where have they gone?” Isidor whispered as he trained his crossbow at the surface of the water.

  “They’re beneath the boat,” Luke whispered back, as he peered over the wooden rail that ran the length of the boat. Leaning over the side, I stared into the dark water, but all I could see was my own rippling reflection. I stared down into the water until the surface calmed and was still once again. It was quiet, and I dared not to breathe just in case I missed some noise that would indicate the location of the vampires hiding beneath the water. The only sound I could hear was the water lapping against the bow of the boat.

  Then breaking the silence, Isidor whispered, “They can’t hold their breath for that long. It’s impossible - they’d drown.”

  “They’re already dead, you Muppet,” Potter snapped, “They can’t drown.”

  “Shhh,” Murphy hissed at them, and as he did the boat began to slowly rock from side to side.

  “They’re trying to roll the boat over!” Luke snapped. “Hold on to something!”

  Gripping the rail as hard as I could, I lurched forward then back again as the vampires rocked the boat from beneath us. Potter must have seen the fear in my eyes, as he grinned at me and said, “Take it easy, tiger, they’ll never tip this thing over.”

  I was just about to scream at him that I wouldn’t count on it, when the boat did what Potter said could never happen, and it rolled so far over onto its side, that I was flung clear of the boat and into the lake. The water hit me like an ice-cold slap in the face, and I instantly sucked in air, but in doing so and in my blind panic, I took in some water. Flaying my arms in the air and desperate to keep my head above water, I felt myself being dragged under. With my head disappearing beneath the lake, everything seemed to go quiet as if the sound had just been turned off. Looking down to see what it was that had snagged me, I screamed in horror at the sight of one of the vampires yanking on my ankle. But my scream beneath the water made no sound, all that came out was a series of bubbles as my much-needed oxygen escaped from my lungs.

  In a blind panic, I kicked out at the vampire and my legs felt heavy and sluggish. I kicked again, and I felt my boot connect with something, and then the hands that had held me were gone, and I was frantically clawing at the surface of the water again. My head bobbed momentarily above the water and in that quick flash, I saw Luke and Potter dive into the water and race towards me. Within a blink, I felt arms slip around me and I was dragged clear of the water. Before I could even take a breath, I was looking down at the lake as I soared above it.

  Then I was falling again, but in a controlled way as whoever had hold of me, was racing us back towards the ground. Glancing upwards, I caught a quick glimpse of Potter’s face, but we were travelling so fast that it was just a blur. Before my eyes had had time to focus, I was lying on the sandy bank of the lake and Potter was gone again, skimming just above the surface of the water, racing back towards the others.

  The boat listed to one side as it took on water and the vampires scurried across it like giant black crabs. Kneeling, I coughed water up from my lungs, and it swung from the corner of my mouth in ropey lumps. Knocking it away with my sleeve, I shivered as I pulled my wet clothes about me. I desperately scanned the dark water for any sign of my friends. Then, like a rocket being fired from a submarine, I saw Isidor propel himself from the water. As he launched up into the night, he sliced through his coat with his claws and it fell away in thin ribbons. Spreading his wings, Isidor looked like some dark angel. Turning in the air and racing back towards the water, he stopped abruptly and just hovered, crossbow in hand.

  Then, Luke was flying up from beneath the lake, spraying water behind him. Several vampires had managed to attach themselves to him, and he slashed at them with his claws, desperate to be free of them. But they were all over him. Luke tumbled through the air, pieces of vampire falling away into the night as he lunged at them with his fangs and cut at them with his claws. Seeing the desperate situation Luke was in, I screamed at Isidor.

  “Over there! Look over there, Isidor!”

  Corkscrewing through the air, Isidor turned, and seeing Luke plummeting back towards the water with the vampires attached to him, he shot forward at lightning speed, releasing wooden stakes from his crossbow in quick succession. The vampires screeched in agony as the wooden missiles ripped into their bodies, causing them to explode. Their powdery remains showered Luke. Shaking it from him and now free of the vampires, Luke tore his coat aside and his wings sprang from his back. Within inches of crashing into the water again, Luke spread his wings open and soared above the sinking boat.

  I saw the vampire first. Before I’d had the chance to open my mouth to scream, it had sprung from the shadows of the boat and dragged Luke crashing downwards. They smashed into the deck of the boat, shards of wood shooting away from the impact. The boat rocked and tipped completely onto its side, sending forth a huge wave that rushed towards the sandy shore.

  “Luke!” I screamed, as I watched the vampire sink its teeth into Luke’s neck. Racing towards the water’s edge, I kicked off my boots and dived into the water. Pin wheeling my arms over and over, I cut through the water towards the boat and Luke. Every few strokes, I looked up only to see that Luke was now being dragged off the deck and into the lake by a vampire clawing at his legs.

  With my lungs burning and my legs feeling like rods of iron, I pushed myself forward towards him. But the water was so cold, I could barely feel my arms, and I began to slow.

  Faster! I told myself. Faster!

  With the boat only inches away, I held my head above the surface of the water and watched as Luke kicked and clawed at the vampires who were dragging him down into the water. Luke dug his claws into the side of the boat, and they made a screeching sound as they dragged across the surface of the deck as he was pulled beneath the water.

  “Luke!” I screamed. Then suddenly, I was being pulled under again. Water sloshed into my mouth, nose, and ears, and I paddled my ar
ms and legs in a panic. Through the murky water, I could see that Luke had been consumed by a group of vampires, and they savaged him like a shoal of piranhas. The water around Luke began to turn crimson and I thought of the red-coloured water running backwards up the fountain.

  With every bit of strength I had in me, I tried to get to him, to help him, but I was yanked down again, as if I had lead weights tied to my feet. Glancing down and desperate for air, I could see that I had two vampires, one hugging each leg, grinning up at me and clawing at my jeans. Their plan was to hold me beneath the water until I drowned.

  Throwing my head back, a last desperate hope that I might be able to force my nose and mouth above the surface and take in some air, I saw the fleeting shadow of a winged creature soar overhead. But beneath the murky surface, I couldn’t tell which one of my friends it was, and I wasn’t even sure if they even knew I was slowly drowning beneath them.

  The last of the air burst from my lungs in a flurry of bubbles and God did I feel sleepy. I just wanted to close my eyes – so I did and I could feel myself being pulled slowly downwards. But I felt strangely calm now, somehow at peace. Then, as if being launched like the NASA Space Shuttle, I was suddenly being propelled at what seemed like lightning speed up through the water and into the night sky. Air rushed past me, causing my clothes to ripple and dragging the flesh back across my face under the force of being propelled upwards.

  Sucking in lungfuls of air, I looked down and could see the lake below me. I was so high that the capsized boat looked like a toy that a sullen child had kicked over. Guessing that one of my friends had saved me, I looked up, but to my surprise, no one had hold of me – I was soaring up into the night on my own. Looking left, then right, I screamed as I saw two raven black wings protruding from either side of me.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Seeing the wings fluttering on either side of me, I panicked, and they curled away. The sensation made me shiver as I felt them almost shrink back inside of me. It felt like ice-cold fingernails were being raked across my back. It felt as if something similar to a snake was wrapping itself around my spine and squeezing through the gaps between my ribs. It didn’t hurt exactly; it felt as if I was shrinking in on myself – being turned inside out.

  Suddenly, I was plummeting like a stone back towards the lake. Without my wings, I was freefalling down and I didn’t know how to get them back. Did I have to will them out – think about them? No, I didn’t want to do that, whatever was going to happen to me – I didn’t want to think about those wings that were inside of me. Spinning over and over, the rush of the air crushed my chest and numbed my face. Looking down as I spiraled out of control, I saw the surface of the lake shining back at me like a colossal mirror. And with every second it grew bigger – like a hole in the earth. With the spray of the lake spattering my skin, I was snatched away and sped back towards the shore where the giant pine trees stretched up into the night like skyscrapers. But this time it wasn’t my wings that gave me flight, it was Isidor, plucking me from the surface of the lake and whisking me to safety.

  Landing on the shore, Isidor looked at me and asked, “What happened?”

  Then, staring out across the lake, I could see fleeting glimpse of Murphy and Potter as they rocketed back and forth across the sky, beheading vampires as they went. But I couldn’t see Luke. With my heart climbing up into my throat, I looked wide-eyed at Isidor and said, “Luke! Where’s Luke?”

  “Erm…I’m not…” Isidor started as he glanced back over his shoulder.

  Gripping him by his broad shoulders, I said, “I saw him get dragged under…the vampires had him…”

  “Where?” Isidor pressed, seeing the fear in my eyes.

  “They dragged him to the bottom of the lake,” I yelled, frantically looking over his shoulder for any sign of Luke.

  Without saying another word, Isidor sprang into the air. Then, pinning his arms to his sides, he dived into the water and disappeared from view.

  “Potter!” I hollered, waving my arms in the air to try and draw his attention. “Potter!”

  But he was too busy slaying any vampire that dared to get close to him. I looked for Murphy, and he was spinning through the air, ripping at the throat of a vampire he was struggling with.

  Realising that they wouldn’t be of any help, I raced to the water’s edge and stared into the water. But even with my new-found sight, I couldn’t see to the bottom of its murky depths.

  “Luke!” I screamed again, as panic began to take a firm grip of me. “Please!”

  Isidor flew from the water, and spreading his arms and wings so as to hover, he looked at me and yelled, “Kiera, I can’t see him!”

  “Please, Isidor,” I almost begged. “Please look again!”

  Taking a deep breath, Isidor span around as if to get momentum, then shot beneath the water again. Running up and down the waters edge, I called out to Murphy and Potter again, but they appeared deaf to my cries as they fought with the vampires.

  As I watched the ripples fade from where Isidor had disappeared in search of Luke, I thought I heard the sound of thunder come from deep within the forest. Spinning around, I stared into the slices of darkness that separated the trees. The rumbling sound came again, and this time the ground began to tremor beneath my feet. I looked over at where I’d left my boots and they were sliding across the sand beneath the vibrations of the thunder, so I put them on. Looking back over my shoulder, I saw Potter and Murphy pause mid-flight as the approaching sound caught their attention.

  “What’s that noise?” I yelled, covering my hands with my ears as the booming sound became almost deafening.

  Looking past me into the forest, then at each other, Murphy and Potter tossed aside the vampires they had been busily tearing to shreds and came swooping towards the shore. Although the sound was terrifying, it seemed to work in our favour, as hearing it, the last of the vampires dived back into the lake and disappeared beneath its black surface as if they knew that some terror was coming.

  Swooping down on either side of me, Murphy and Potter appeared to brace themselves as they stared ahead into the darkness of the forest. Then from behind me, there was a splash as Isidor sprang from beneath the water again. Circling around in the air above us, he shouted, “I’m sorry Kiera, but I can’t find Luke -”

  “Luke!” Murphy barked at me. “Where’s Luke?”

  But before I’d had the chance to explain anything, that deafening sound of thunder was upon us as four giant wolves bounded from the forest. Shrinking back in fear, I looked at the wolves that now stood before us on the shore. Unlike any other wolves I had seen, these were as large as bears. They turned their massive heads and their long snouts towards us. One of them lept forward and roared with such force that even from several feet away I could feel its hot breath against my face and my hair bellowed out behind me.

  Potter sprang forward, his wings arched upward in a display of anger. He stood defiantly before the wolf and stared into its blazing, yellow eyes. The other three monstrous wolves howled as they bounded towards Potter, but he didn’t shrink back or flinch with fear. In a stream of black shadows, Murphy was at his side, as was Isidor. Both of them, like Potter, had there wings fully splayed along with their claws and fangs.

  The dominant wolf roared, sending stringy waves of saliva from its jaws. Its sleek, black fur glistened in the moonlight, and its claws kicked up a shower of sand as if to ward off my Vampyrus friends. The other wolves circled us, a deep, angry rumble coming from within their throats. Turning on the spot, I followed them with my eyes. They almost seemed to tower over us, their flanks flexing in and out with muscle. Their yellow eyes fixed on us, as if waiting for the command to charge. They sniffed the air, and their long fleshy tongues hung from the corners of their dripping jaws. Unlike the black-coated wolf, the other’s coats were brown, grey, and white. But each of them had the same yellow, piercing stare and I looked away from them, as I remembered Potter telling me how the Lycanthrope could pl
ace you in a trance with just one look.

  Even though I feared these enormous wolves, my greatest fear was what had happened to Luke. Had those vampires savaged him at the bottom of the lake or had he managed to escape, clawed his way up the shore and now lay injured and bleeding in the forest?

  As if reading my mind, Murphy said to the wolf with the black bristling hair, “Jack Seth, we don’t have time for this macho shit-head display of aggression – I’ve lost one of my men and I need to find him.”

  Rolling back its fleshy lips, the wolf growled at Murphy.

  “I’m sorry,” Potter said, “What was that you said? I don’t speak dog!”

  Within an instant, the giant wolf was standing on its back legs and looming over Potter, his jaws wide open and brandishing a set of teeth that glistened like a set of knives.

  Smirking and looking over at Murphy, Potter said, “Aww, I think the little poodle wants me to stroke its tummy!”

  With one earsplitting roar, the werewolf had swiped at Potter with one of its giant paws and sent him spinning back through the air and into the lake. Hitting the water, Potter sprang into the air and then came racing back towards the shore. Seeing him, the werewolf launched himself forward, and in a blur, and twisting out of shape, the wolf took the form of a man. Landing on his feet, he towered over Potter. Not outside of a freak show had I seen such a tall man. Jack Seth must have stood seven feet tall at least. The way his shadow was cast across the sand, I knew that he was the man that Murphy had secretly met in the derelict farmhouse. Seth stared down at Potter, who took to the air again, so they met eye to eye.

  Seeing this, the other three werewolves bounded forward in a series of giant leaps and were yapping and barking at Potter.

  “Enough already!” Murphy roared. “These pathetic schoolboy antics aren’t going to help us save Luke!”

  With neither one of them wanting to back down, I took a deep breath and raced towards Potter. As I darted between the wolves, they snapped at me with their mighty jaws, but Isidor was already hovering above them, and taking aim with his crossbow.